Every Painting Has A Story. . .

Every painting has a story.

Today I simply want to share with you one of mine. This one involves me and my sister, Jessica, circa 1989.

The Sugar Bowl

When I was about six, I walked into the dining room of our childhood home. The house was quiet. Too quiet. My sister, Jessica (who was about fifteen) was supposed to be watching me while my parents were out, but it felt like the whole place had been abandoned.

As I stepped into the room, I stopped in my tracks. There, on the dining table, sat the lone, sacred sugar bowl.

As a type 1 diabetic since age three, I had never tasted sugar. I was constantly told, “No, there’s sugar in that.” But I didn’t even know what sugar tasted like. Was it really sweet? Did it have a flavor? It was this alien, elusive thing I wasn’t allowed to have.

I wondered if maybe a tiny taste would be okay.

So I walked over to the bowl, pinched a few grains between my fingers, and sprinkled them into my mouth. I thought, “Is that it? I don’t really taste anything.”

Maybe another pinch would help me figure out what sugar actually tastes like.

I picked up the bowl, and just then, I heard my sister coming down the hall.

“Oh shoot”, I thought.

In a panic, I ran behind the couch, sugar bowl in hand, and crouched down in the corner. I didn’t want to be yelled at. I knew I would be in a world of trouble if anyone caught me. But now that I was sitting there, holding the bowl, I thought, “Well… I already have it, so why not try a little more? She probably won’t even hear me.”

This time I licked my fingers, plunged them deep into the bowl, and shoved the sugar into my mouth. I started chewing.

My sister paused. She heard a soft crunching coming from somewhere in the living room. (She thought it might be mice).

She walked over to the sofa and peeked behind it to find her little diabetic sister wedged between the wall and the couch, sugar coating her face, happily munching away like a feral woodland creature who discovered a treasure.

Jessica’s eyes bulged out of her head, and her mouth dropped practically to the floor as she let out a gasp. “CARRIE?!”

I looked up at her in horror and said, “I just wanted to try it.”

This painting is  for all those rule breakers out there. The ones who say. “Why?” The ones who do things they know they shouldn’t but just want to try.

P.S. I was totally fine. I ate the equivalent of one or two teaspoons of sugar. And yes, the sugar bowl in the painting, is the exact one I ate from.

If you’d like to see more of my professional work, and read more about them, you can take a look here.

Hope to see you at a upcoming paint and sip!

-Caroline